I. DESCRIPTION:

Prerequisites: Completion of the G.E. Foundation, one or more Explorations courses, and upper-division standing. This course will introduce the comparative, interdisciplinary study of multicultural literature along with issues of racism and ethnic discrimination. Ethnic groups to be discussed: European-American, Native American, African-American, Latino/Latina, Asian-American, Southeast-Asian American, Middle-Eastern American. Recurrent themes in literature will be situated in their historical and sociopolitical context using printed and media materials. Analytical essays on various theories of race and ethnicity will be presented using supporting multimedia. Traditional grading and credit/no credit. This course fulfills the IC2a, HC2a requirements.

II. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. To gain a general comparative understanding of the dimensions of U.S. ethnic experience through the analysis of various texts.
2. To understand the psychological and socio-political issues regarding ethnic stereotyping and personal identity formation as reflected in the course material
3. To gain an appreciation of the social construction of ethnic identity through the medium of language.
4. To understand how race, class, and gender are factors in the social construction of ethnic identity
5. To gain an appreciation of the various styles of ethnic writing;
6. To identify certain recurrent themes in ethnic literature.
7. To achieve a greater degree of interethnic self-reflexivity; to be able to decode cultural stereotypes in order to interpret their social effects.

III. REQUIRED TEXTS

1. Course Reader (Ethnic Literature and Culture in the United States). This reader contains a collection of essays, short stories and poetry. Available in the Campus Bookstore.
2. Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie
3. Carmelo, Sandra Cisneros
4. Black Boy, Richard Wright
5. Bound Feet and Western Dress, Natasha Chang
6. Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas
7. ereserves .